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New Chick-fil-A location to open on campus; second one planned

Construction workers put the finishing touches on the new Chick-fil-A Express, located in the Tilley Student Center, which is slated to open Aug. 16.

Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy received an honorary doctorate degree from Liberty University at Commencement 2012.

Strengthening its longstanding relationship with the popular restaurant chain Chick-fil-A, Liberty University announced today that its new Chick-fil-A Express location will open Aug. 16 in the Tilley Student Center and a second location is being planned on main campus, at a yet-to-be determined site.

“We welcome Chick-fil-A and the values they stand for,” said Lee Beaumont, Liberty’s director of auxiliary services, who noted that while some localities and even one university have been encouraged recently to cut ties with the company, Liberty is doing the opposite.

Beaumont said the growth of the university, with a campus transformation under way, as well as its continuing popularity among students, justified a second location. Liberty may become the first university to have two Chick-fil-A sites.

In September 2007, Cathy visited Liberty University to open the university's first Chick-fil-A restaurant.

Liberty has offered Chick-fil-A among its dining options for five years. The relationship has resulted in visits from top executives, most recently at this year’s Commencement, when founder S. Truett Cathy received an honorary doctorate degree. Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. said Cathy was honored for his “commitment to faith and excellence in business, and for modeling the vision of Liberty University to the world.”

Cathy participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Liberty’s first Chick-fil-A in September 2007 in a newly renovated Founder’s Food Court at Campus North (now Green Hall). The food court closed in September 2011 and Chick-fil-A was moved temporarily to the Vines Center.

The restaurant chain, a private company founded in 1946, operates more than 1,600 locations in 39 states and in the District of Columbia.

Liberty alumnus Ken Coleman interviewed Chick-fil-A COO Dan Cathy on his weekly radio show, The Ken Coleman Show, on June 16. It was Cathy’s comments on Coleman’s show that were partly responsible for recent media reports about the company. Coleman immediately began receiving calls from major media outlets, leading to an interview on CNN as well as an editorial for The Huffington Post.

Another Liberty alumnus, Bill Peterson (’97), was recently included in a story on NPR.